Chapter Fifty Three. Finding Higher Ground

Finding Higher Ground

"Yes! I hear you! Now stop asking that. It is annoying!," demanded Derby to the worm voice in his head.

Flashes of violent explosions were narrowly missing Derby as he was crawling along the ground, searching for cover.

"OK, but if we get a bad connection, you'll let me know?," asked the Fredalnte from within.

"How can we get a bad connection?," required Derby. "You're living in my inner ear! Now get us out of here!"

Dirt and debris would sting as blasts would bomb the ground around him, but Derby tried to focus on the instructions.

"You'll see," said the voice. "It's much like tuning a radio. Your receptors must be turned on. When I'm not talking to you, it isn't that I've disappeared. It will be that you are "looking" elsewhere for things to occupy your mind."

"OK," agreed Derby. "I'm listening. But I feel like time is running out! I felt that last explosion. Where are these blasts coming from?"

People were frantic and chaos surrounded him. Derby's knees and hands were bleeding.

"Listen to me carefully Derby," came the instructions. "Turn over so that you're facing up. Close your eyes and locate your inner peace."

"What the fuck are you talking about?," Derby screamed.  "Inner peace?!!! Fuck that. People are dying here!"

"Until you can regain calm," came the reply. "Your own muscles will be at war with you. Until you are able to be undisturbed by the mountain exploding in front of you, you will be the source of all your difficulty."

Just then the mountain in front of him exploded. Derby sprung to his feet and starting running in circles, cackling and crying like a two year old who just lost his mommy.

"Do you hear me now?," asked the voice calmly.

"For Christ's sake! I asked you to stop saying that!," said Derby frantically. "Oh Jesus. I'm dead."

"If you really think it is useless," came the mellow voice. "then lay down. Like you said. You're dead anyway. What have you got to lose?"

Derby switched off the voice and dashed behind another bombed out vehicle. Two children, a boy and girl were crying on the ground next to him. Their faces and arms were smudged with crusted dirt and mud. Their clothing was in shreds and they were nestled so close together that Derby couldn't tell their gender.

He measured the circumstance and decided to try to help them.

"Kids. Do you speak any English?," he asked them.

One of the children, the older one looked up. He still held his arm around the other one who now appeared to be his younger sister. "Whauu ees hoppenin?," the young Asian asked. "Ees dis de in of au wourl?"

Since he had "turned off" the switch to Fred's inner voice, Derby was back on autopilot. But something told him to care for these children.

"No, no," Derby assured the older of the two. "Our world is not ending. This is just a very violent electrical storm. I need you to do what I tell you now, OK my young friend?"

Derby plugged into something else inside himself and his own voice surprised him as he continued to instruct the child. "To save your sister, and yourself, you must do exactly as I say. Will you do that?"

Blasts were lacerating the ground at the edges of the vehicle. Occasionally, the ping of a ricochet would fracture a part of the vehicle and rubble would stab their ears and neck.

"Lay down and think of a safe place. Think of a happy place you've been," Derby explained. Then a thought occurred to him. "Where are your parents. Have they been hurt?," he asked.

"No. We doan know. We out heaa pwaying. Pwaying wif de bauuu," the boy continued to speak in chopped English, but Derby remembered the marbles in his pocket when the boy mentioned the ball. The boy continued as Derby reached for the white and black marble.

"Den ouwa bauuu. It expwode. Like BAM," continued the lad. "Den awww helwol bweak woos. Den you come an help us."

As Derby rubbed the marbles together, he heard a voice say. "Know the male but keep to the female."

Without understanding the significance of this message, Derby felt a nurturing essence relax him. He felt a cool stillness and he heard himself saying, "Yes, I've come to help you. We're leaving here right now."

As he said those words he gathered up the children as if they were two small bags of groceries. With lightning speed his legs carried them all through the mine field of explosions and over pot holes. The crackling blasts were following him, though the flash of Derby himself was a force of nature.

Derby was running low to the ground, but at such great speed that the bolts of energy seemed to fade behind him. As they ran out of the war zone, there was no longer bombing going on where previously it had been concentrated. Now there was only the firestorm on his trail, but each blast was landing short.

Soon the three seemed to be out of danger. Derby looked around and realized he was in a park. Other families were there, oblivious that a skirmish had just occurred nearby, and tragically, ruins and suffering had been left behind.

"Kids," Derby said as he set them down on the side of a tree. "You're ok now. Someone here will help you find your parents."

In his hands, which seemed to be soaked with cold water, the marbles were still held firmly.

"Fred," Derby said to anyone who was listening. "Can you hear me now?"